"The Raptor's Codex"
Based on Star Trek: The Next Generation created by Gene Roddenberry
Prologue
The Romulans where followers of a Vulcan dissident named S'Task, who had a different view than his teacher, Surak, the father of modern Vulcan civilization. Surak was teaching the Vulcans his philosophy of logic, while S'Task remained true to the old ways of honor. Soon the two philosophies began to clash, and S'Task decided to leave the Vulcan homeworld with his followers to save it from being torn apart between them.
S'Task departed with eighty-thousand people in seventeen ships, and began a journey across the stars in search of a new homeworld. While on their quest, many of the original seventeen ships were lost. After five-hundred years of traveling, their voyage finally ended with four ships remaining; eighteen-thousand people of the original eighty-thousand settled on the twin planets of Romulus and Remus.
Five-hundred years of traveling amongst the stars spawned many first contacts between the Romulans and various alien cultures, many of them warlike, aggressive and untrustworthy. The Romulans became fearful and distrusting of these strangers, giving rise to the innate sense of paranoia characteristic of present-day Romulans.
However, a few of these traveling dissidents sought to establish peaceful terms with those that they met amongst the stars. In an attempt to communicate with these space-faring strangers, a small group of scholars developed a language that they believed would be universal to all races, one that would allow for their people to speak to any person of any alien race without difficulty.
Unfortunately, this lingua franca was found to be too complex, too difficult for many of the Romulans to learn and understand. Disheartened by their failure, the scholars abandoned their endeavors, and ultimately died out. It was said that their last acolyte had gone missing after making an attempt to make contact with another alien race; he was never heard from again. He had taken with him all traces of his comrades' work, leaving none behind. The scholars' language was lost.
Two-thousand years later, that would all change...
Alpha Rioni system, somewhere near the Paulson Nebula
Lt. Carsen wiped his sweaty forehead with the back of his grimy hand. Several weeks of digging in the dirt had made the young science officer hardy and rugged; he was accustomed to the harsh desert clime of this Class-H planet to which Starfleet Command had sent him among a team of archaeologists. Science officers, all of them.
The harsh heat of the sun beat down on his back. His mouth and throat were dry. It was only a matter of time before Commander Shott would call for a water break...
CLUNK!
Carsen's excavation equipment had hit something. Something metallic, by the sound of it.
"Commander?" he called "I think you should have a look at this."
A tall Bolian commander approached Carsen. "What is it, Lieutenant?" he asked.
Carsen brushed some dirt away from the object his equipment had struck. "Something big, sir," he said.
Hours later, the excavation team had finished unearthing what appeared to be a small cargo ship. Judging by the perplexed expressions on the archaeologists' faces, it was one of unknown origins.
Shott rubbed his bald blue head pensively. At length, he turned to his science team. "It looks like we have a mystery on our hands, ladies and gentlemen," he said. "Search the ship for any artifacts of any kind. We'll need as many clues as possible to see who this cargo ship belonged to."
Carsen hauled a large fallen bulkhead out of the way. So far, the science team had found virtually nothing of value except for ancient computer systems and what could have been a store of provisions. The cargo bay was virtually empty save for a tiny store of dilithium crystals; by the looks of things, the ship had run short on fuel and crashed here. Carsen wondered where the crewmembers' bodies were...there were no signs of decaying organic material anywhere...
Carsen's tricorder beeped. Okay, maybe scratch that last thought...the Lieutenant thought to himself as he squeezed between a pile of debris and the wall. He found himself in what appeared to be the captain's quarters. He began to scan the room.
A skeleton lay huddled on the floor, up against a desk of some sort. The head lay at an odd angle, as if the neck had been snapped.
Carsen poked his head out into the hallway. "Commander! Get in here!" he shouted. "I found something!" Commander Shott crouched down next to Carsen and began to scan the body. Carsen stood up and began to search the desk. His eyes fell on what appeared to be an ancient leather-bound book. He picked it up and opened it. The scent of stale paper filled his nose as he leafed through pages browned from age.
"Commander," he said finally. He showed the Bolian a page full of strange glyphs. "What can you make of this?"
The Bolian studied the writing for a good long minute. "I've never seen that before. Must be ancient Vulcan or something," he said.
"Ancient Vulcan?" Carsen asked. "Sir, I can read Vulcan, and *this* is not Vulcan...at least, none that I've seen before. What makes you think it's Vulcan?"
"Because the body's DNA matches most closely with that of a Vulcan," Shott said. He studied the writing some more. "Contact Starfleet Command," he said. "Tell them we've found something that might be of interest to them."